(Adnkronos) – A secret military base that could house ballistic missiles has been discovered in North Korea, on the border with China. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington revealed that the ‘undeclared’ Sinpung-dong Missile Operating Base is located in North Pyongan Province, about 27 kilometers from the border with China. According to the CSIS report, it can hold six to nine intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of carrying nuclear warheads and their launchers. Weapons that “represent a potential nuclear threat to East Asia and the continental United States”.
The report – which CSIS called the first in-depth, open-source confirmation of Sinpung-dong’s existence – states that the base is one of approximately “15-20 ballistic missile bases, maintenance, support, missile and warhead storage facilities that North Korea has never declared”. Furthermore, the facility “does not appear to have been the subject of any previous denuclearization negotiations between the United States and North Korea”.
The base, along with others, “represents the core component of what is presumed to be North Korea’s evolving ballistic missile strategy and its growing strategic-level nuclear deterrence and strike capability,” the report says.
